A Gaetano Pesce Sculpture With a Timely Message Lands in Boston

Gaetano Pesce, the late Italian modernist known for his provocative and rambunctious sensibility, was a true polymath and a prolific one at that. Ever experimental, his body of work includes furniture composed of gloopy kaleidoscopic resin, a corporate headquarters in the mid-1990s that was so vibrant and zany that some employees described it as working in a migraine, and a conceptual house from a postapocalyptic future that was a meditation on isolation and the human condition. "I don’t make things so they appear nice or elegant," Pesce told PIN-UP in a 2021 interview. "I make objects to communicate different stories to people."

The majority of Pesce’s work is in museums or private collections, but he also created the occasional public artwork, a medium he appreciated for bringing social commentary into the open and for helping us understand the time in which we live. For the most part, these installations have been temporary, including a scaled-up version of his Up armchair in Milan, a piece intended to critique violence against women, as well as a 40-foot-tall sculpture in Naples, an homage to a theatrical mask that had a phallic resemblance.

Now a new permanent installation by Pesce has graced the city of Boston, and it’s his only public sculpture in the United States. Named Double Heart, the 30-foot-tall piece is composed of two bright-red hearts pierced by an arrow. At night, the installation glows. It is installed at Lyrik, a new mixed-use development in the Back Bay, a neighborhood on the south bank of the Charles River known for its historic brick townhouses and shopping streets. An adaptation of a lamp Pesce designed in the 1970s, Double Heart symbolizes the importance of love and connecting with others.

"Pesce was passionately interested in how his work connected with the public, which is why he so often employed narrative, figuration, and memorable iconography," says Glenn Adamson, a curator, historian, and author of the 2022 book Gaetano Pesce: The Complete Incoherence. "While it’s true that much of his work was domestic in scale, I think we actually see this communicative aspect of his work at its highest pitch in his public art works."

Pesce originally debuted the piece in 2023 for an Art Basel exhibition at the Jardin des Tuileries in Paris. "This object is significant because it has meaning in a moment when the world is not doing so well," Pesce said of the piece. "So many stupid people are in positions of power, and they are doing serious damage. Art and design have a very significant role to play." And that role is to remind us of what matters most, he says. "This piece encourages people to be careful and stay connected to positive expressions, culture, and all kinds of things—because this is what the world needs."

The message remains highly resonant, especially since political tensions have risen so drastically in the years since Pesce’s comments. In this context, the clarity of Pesce’s iconography, as simple as it may be, sends a strong message. "It’s just a slight transformation of an image from Valentine’s Day—even a child will recognize it," Adamson says. "Through the simple duplication of the heart, though, he turns sentimentality into profundity. At a time when social division is all too widespread, he invites us to consider the deep mutuality of love."